Airmapper

I've used a "hard mount (RAM)" on my bike. I'm mostly on pavement, so vibration wasn't bad. I did notice enough vibration to make the screen difficult to see over rougher terrain. If your GPS allows you to make the number readouts large, they will be easier to see when moving. Other than that crashing would be my biggest consern, a lot of GPS units can cost more than the bike thier mounted on.

Just a suggestion you might try to use the GPS to go to a waypoint and tell it to average it's position if there is that feature. Averageing the position makes it more accurate for attempting to return to the spot. You may have already done this. Also remember to use the EPE (Estimatied position error) to tell you how accurate you can expect to be. I've averaged cache locations in tree cover with EPE in the 20 foot range and still had good coords. Cloud cover, thunderstorms, all have no affect on your signal. GPS uses a high band frequency that will penetrate weather.

There are three along the runway at my home base, I posted in the benchmarking forum because of an odd arrangement in the description. See Odd Benchmark, the description said that the actual mark was surrounded in grease. The benchmarkers knew why it was like this, to prevent the mark from shifting. My flight instructor is also the airport manager, I shoulden't have any trouble finding them, he probably knows where they are.

I think flying is fun, remember I'm still a student flying two seat Cessna's, I'm not pulling all nighters flying big irons across the country. I don't consider it work yet. Besides, I need hours and taking trips is a good way to build time and experience. I thought there might be quite a few pilots into caching, flying is the reason I got a GPS, GPS is how I found caching...you get the picture.

Thanks, caches are scarce in my area, plus benchmarks are just as interesting to find as caches. I placed a cache near to a benchmark and gave some info on it, so far one of the visitors to the cache also logged the mark.

R-A-M it. I'd hope you don't crash a lot, but even if you did I think a ram mount could handle it. They make mounts for a lot of GPSr's, get a tubular attachment end, kinda like a C-clamp only shaped to securely hold to a handlebar or anything else round. I have heard of other companies that make similar products, try looking for ATV mounts as they have similar handlebar arrangements. Now you said you were looking for something aftermarket or improvised, I can't think of anything offhand. I've used a Nite-Ize GPS holster to hold my GPS on the handlebars, but it is not very secure.

Now when I find it I might be able to explain why it's built like that, the Airport manager (my flight instructor) may already know where they are as he is listed in the description as thier caretaker. Thanks, I'll try to post here after I find and log them.

Thats what I thought, these were supposed to be descriptions. I looked at a description for another benchmark on down the runway, it says it is a stainless steel rod, I assume the other one is the same. There are three benchmarks along the runway, all have seperate descriptons, and I reckon I get to log them as three different marks. ------ I'll try and take those photos like that when I log them. Thats interesting about the grease securing the rod. I guess since this is an airport they secured the rod with extra measures so it would be accurate for possibly expanding the runway or other construction.

Yeah, if I ever attempt it I will have more than one reason for the trip. I'm a student getting close to a private lisense, thought caching along the way might be a good way to build up my hours. I've made long trips and just got out of the plane to rest a little before going on, would have been nice to see the area and find a few caches.

I'd like to hear from some benchmarkers and see what you think about this description I found for an Airport survey marker. I plan on logging it sometime soon. (I'm known at the airport, no security issues.) "THE STATION IS A PUNCH MARK IN TOP OF A STAINLESS STEEL DRIVEN INTO THE GROUND AND ENCASED IN A 3 FOOT SECTION OF GREASE FILLED PVC PIPE AND SURROUNDED BY A 5-INCH PVC PIPE WITH A LOGO CAP STAMPED --- LOGANPORT 1989---." Why would a stainless steel marker need to be surrounded by a pipe filled with grease? I'm sure there is a purpose for the setup, but does anyone know why they went to so much trouble setting this marker?

I'm pretty new to Geocaching myself. I have logged two benchmarks just because they were in my area. The government or another orginization places them, they sit for years, even decades, and no one checks on them till possibly you. The two Benchmarks I logged were last reported in 1952. Some of them have two reference markers nearby, finding them can be as interesting as finding the main one, there are descriptions that will want you to use a compass heading from a reference point. One of the ones I did used a gravestone as a reference point, I had to find the guys headstone, use the compass, and start walking. It isn't all that different from looking for a cache.

AirMap, And probably I-Finders. = 7.68 ounces Garmin 60, and I assume the other models, = 7.5 ounces. I have a 512MB SD card in my AirMap, I have about four states of high detail maps. Plus lots of room for data files, lake charts, and taxiway diagrams.

I agree with Reidster, I have taken my AirMap hunting, I didn't think it was bulky, I've always liked how it would fit in a pocket. As for the Topo maps, I think they are pretty accurate even if they were made in the 1950's, I don't think the major lay of the land could change that much, considering the contur lines are spaced at 50 feet.

Yeah, I'm new to this. I have seen those folding bikes, sounds like fun, fly in, go biking/ caching, fly home.

Here I thought 30-30 shells were expensive

Even if you do not get a Lowrance I-Finder Hunt, you can still use Mapcreate 6.3 Hunt with another Lowrance unit. Lowrance say's that any unit that uses the MMC/ SD card will accept Mapcreate 6.3. I am not really familiar with the PHD C, but I think that is the case.

My AirMap, which is basically an I-Finder, seems to work good as long as I keep it away from my body and hold it so I can see the screen, which can be flat, or vertical. It is probably designed to work best at what would be a comfortable position to hold.

Any pilots out there who Geocache? I'm a student pilot and would just like to see if many pilots (Who generally use and like GPS) also Geocache. Also, do you find ways to combine the two, say fly to a destination, and find a few caches while your there. ------- Wasn't geting many hits so I'm widening the subject. If your not a pilot, have you ever used or heard of an aircraft being used to cache with? Ever seen any Aviation themed caches? Ever seen a cache near an airport?

Lowrance has come out with the I-finder Hunt, with Mapcreate 6.3 Topo maps you can get for it, I can't make any personal recomendations, but it should be a good unit. I can say Mapcreate Hunt is very detailed. I have it for my AirMap. GMA, WMA, and any other public hunting grounds are displayed. There is also Topo and intermittent stream data. The only thing about this setup is be prepared to do a lot of computer work to get it set up. Mapcreate will run you about $120+ I-finder Hunt should run about $200+ But I am guessing. I have a Garmin 72, no mapping data, no need for a computer, but it will get you from point A to point B, record points of interest, i.e your deerstand or truck, and it is pretty rugged. It should run 16 hours on a set of batteries, and has Sun/ Moon and Best Hunting/ Fishing times charts. Garmin 72 is about $150 at Wal-mart. As with any GPS it depends on what you want and how much money you want to spend.

I do belong to GEOKY, and I am somewhat familiar with the State park regs. I have an area that dosen't have many caches, and most public land isn't really supervised by anyone. I have a park nearby I won't put a cache in because the weeds are tall and the place is a dump. I'm thinking more about city/ county parks, river use areas, and other public use areas. ----- Thanks for the input. I'll take this thread up with the locals.

I am pretty new to caching, I have four caches placed, but they are all in cemeteries. I'm looking to get out of the graveyards. I'd like to know where are places I can put caches without permission, and places where I do. For example, I don't ask permission for cemeteries because their public property and in my area, whose gonna know it's there besides us cachers. Are there any general ideas on wether or not I need to ask permission to put caches in places like public city parks, state parks, boat ramp areas, overlooks, and other places like that? Thanks, Airmapper

Got 7-zip running and extracted GPSbabel files. I think I got Babel running, but it isn't working right. I'll work on it some more and try to get it running. Thanks for all the help, I may need more yet, but I'll work with what I got. Airmapper --------------- Edited for update I got it running, it displayed a bunch of benchmarks in Mapcreate, I have more experimenting to do but looks good, Thanks a lot, this beats the heck out of trying to convert it manually.

Thanks, I'm running on Windows 98 SE. I'm downloading the program you suggested right now.

I hit a snag I downloaded GPSBabel but have no idea how to Unzip it, I suspect my computer doesn't have the software to do this but I could just not know how. I have tried to unzip files before but with no sucess. Any more suggestions?

Thanks, I had looked at GPSbabel but coulden't find proof that it supported Mapcreate .usr files. Thanks for the link to the other thread as well, looks like it might help. Airmapper